The background description provided here is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
There is a need for employees of a corporation, customers and suppliers to electronically share highly sensitive documents (e.g., agreements, documents pertaining to intellectual property, etc.). Current options for sharing such data are limited to an extranet, email, white rooms, online file sharing services, and/or physical delivery of data. An extranet refers to a network located at the corporation, which allows customers and/or suppliers to remotely access documents. An extranet places an owner of the extranet (e.g., the corporation) in a privileged position. The extranet owner has control of the data and documents stored in the extranet, as well as control of accessibility, traceability, and auditability of the documents. This can place the customers and/or suppliers at a disadvantage.
Sending sensitive data via email can be fraught with risk since email has limited security with regard to data protection. In addition, the amount of data and files that can be included in an email is also limited. Process automation also cannot be handled via email. A “white room” refers to a cloud based service in which documents can be stored in a third party server and accessed by multiple parties. Typically, a white room owner (e.g., a corporation) that had the white room setup is placed in a privileged position over the counterpart (e.g., customer or supplier) with regard to control of the system storing the privileged data and the data stored in the system. The white room owner also controls access to the data. Purchase of a white room can be expensive. Online file sharing services (e.g., Dropbox®) typically have limited security. Although data can be transferred physically by, for example, mailing flash drives, solid-state drives, memory cards, etc. via a courier/parcel service, this form of data transfer is inefficient and has minimal security.